In the U.S. each year, more people die from hospital infections than from AIDS, breast cancer, and auto accidents combined. These infections are the fourth leading cause of death, with current annual estimates of 2,000,000 infections, 100,000 deaths, and added costs of $45 billion. Somewhere between 5-10% of all patients admitted to a hospital acquire an infection while in that hospital. Even with such extreme statistics, many industry experts consider the problem to be severely underestimated.
Currently, Clostridium difficile (C. diff) is one of the most problematic pathogens in the healthcare industry. It causes C. diff Infection (CDI) that sickens and kills humans. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states that C. diff spores are transferred to patients mainly via the hands of healthcare personnel who have touched a contaminated surface or item. They also say that to reduce the chance of spreading pathogens and subsequent disease, surfaces must be cleaned more effectively.
Current cleaning methods, such as chemical disinfection, are not working as stand-alone practices, and additional measures need to be taken to reduce the risk to patient and healthcare professionals′. For more than 75 years UV light has been used to destroy pathogens in water supplies and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. In recent years, products have been developed that utilize UV to disinfect surfaces and air.
In 1892, Professor Marshall Ward demonstrated that it was primarily the UV portion of the spectrum of light that had the ability to inactivate the DNA of pathogens thereby making them unable to multiply. Medical uses of UV light include sterilization of surfaces and air without the use of chemicals. There are many well documented studies that identify the specific amount (dosage) of UV light necessary to disinfect and sterilize surfaces and air.
One type of existing UV disinfection equipment uses either a manually operated switch or a timer to deliver UV light for a period of time. Another type of existing UV disinfection equipment is a system that measures reflected UV light, generally at the emitter, to control how much time the UV light is delivered. Both of these types of equipment are unable to definitively deliver a specific dosage to a surface or volume of air because there is no measurement being taken at the location of interest. This problem results in surfaces and air being exposed to too much, or too little, UV radiation. In the case of over-treating, excess treatment time, which slows down the facility's operations thus adding to operating costs and reducing throughput, and excess exposure of room surfaces to UV radiation, which causes faster breakdown of the materials the surfaces are made from, may occur. In the case of under-treating, disinfection or sterilization is not assured, which may result in reduced efficacy of disinfection procedure and increased exposure to liability.